Fr Patrick writes…
We enjoyed assembling our crib scene at the Crib Service with all the children on Christmas Eve. Lots of children brought paper angels which they brought forward as we sang the carol, “It came upon a midnight clear”, which is all about the angels.
Then we had phase 2 on 5th January when we observed the Epiphany. We thought about the wise men coming to visit the baby Jesus (Matt 2: 1-12), and we added their figures to the crib scene, and we put the star over the scene.
Traditionally Christmas decorations are cleared away on Twelfth Night, just before Epiphany. However, we will keep the Crib up until 2nd February when we shall have a Family Eucharist to mark the “Presentation of Christ in the Temple” known as “Candlemas” (Luke 2: 22-39). We will think about Mary and Joseph presenting Jesus in the Temple when he was forty days old. We will remember Jesus as “a light to enlighten the gentiles” (Luke 2: 32) with the candles.